MONTAIGNE (Michel de) The Essays. New edition... Lot 50

MONTAIGNE (Michel de) The Essays. New edition exactly purged of the defects of the previous ones, according to the true original. Amsterdam, Anthoine Michiels [Brussels, François Foppens], 1659. 3 volumes in-12 of (26) ff. including an engraved portrait, 468 pp; (2) ff. 708 pp; (2) ff. 510 pp. and (39) ff. in black morocco, triple gilt fillet, spine decorated with gilt fillets, inner lace, gilt edges (Antoine Chaumont, with his label). Beautiful classical edition of the Essays: decorated on the frontispiece with a copper-engraved portrait of the author by P. Clouwet, it was printed in Brussels by François Foppens. Some of the copies bear the Amsterdam address, Anthoine Michiels, as here. (Tchemerzine, t. IV, p. 905.- Willems, n° 1982.) A very fine copy, in an elegant and sober morocco binding signed by Antoine Chaumont. The decoration of the spine, composed of compartments of gilt fillets, is in the style of the end of the 17th century. The bookbinder's label, with the address of rue du Foin Saint-Jacques, is affixed to the verso of the flyleaf of the first volume. After having emigrated to London during the Revolution, Antoine Chaumont practiced in Paris until the early 1820s. In the preface to his Manuel (page XLI), Jacques-Charles Brunet deplores the decline of bookbinding at the end of the 18th century: "Since Derome the young, who died in 1790, until about the year 1820, Parisian bookbinding has hardly produced anything but sloppy works of the most detestable taste." Brunet however notes the names of two exceptional practitioners: Bradel l'aîné and Chaumont. A large-margined copy (height: 153 mm). Old handwritten bookplate erased on the title. Modern bookplate of Charles Meek.